4. And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim King of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went
into Babylon, saith the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Hananiah promised as to the king himself, what he had just predicted respecting the vessels of the Temple and of the palace.
But it may be asked, how did he dare to give hope as to the restoration of Jeconiah, since that could not have been acceptable
to Zedekiah? for Jeconiah could not have again gained what he had lost without the abdication of Zechariah; but he would have
never submitted willingly to lose his own dignity and to
become a private man, and to allow him who had been deprived of this high honor to return again. But there is no doubt
but that he relied on the favor of the people, and that he was fully persuaded that if Zedekiah could ill bear to be thus
degraded, he would yet be constrained to shew a different feeling; for Zedekiah himself regarded his own reign as not honorable,
as he sat not in David’s throne by the right of succession. He had been set on the throne by a tyrant, and he dared not to
make
any other pretense to the people than that he wished Jeconiah to return and to possess the kingdom of which he had been
deprived. As then this impostor knew that the king dared not to shew any displeasure, but that his prophecy would be gratifying
and acceptable to the people, he boldly promised what we here read respecting the return of Jeconiah.

He hence says in God’s name, Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all the captive people, who have been led away to Babylon, will I restore
to this place. We see that he was ever inflated with the same arrogance, and that he wholly disregarded God, whose name he thus in sport
profaned. But all this flowed from this
fountain, even because he had been blinded by the righteous judgment of God.

he then confirms his own prophecy, repeating its beginning, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon196196 The tense here is not correctly given, the words are, “For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon; and so are all the
Versions. — Ed.
He had made open for himself an entrance, by saying that the destruction of the Babylonian monarchy was at hand; and
now, after having given utterance to what seemed good to him on the whole affair, he refers again to that event. As then he
promised that the monarchy would not stand longer than two years, the Jews might have supposed that they would become free,
and might thus have hoped for a happy state of things; and this was the design
of the impostor; but what was the answer of Jeremiah? His opposition to him was frank and firm; but as he saw that he
had incurred the ill-will of the people, he was anxious to remove it; and before he repeated what he had said of their seventy
years in exile, he shewed that he had not eagerly received his commission, as though he had been alienated from his people,
or had disregarded their welfare, or had been carried away by some morbid feeling to bring a sad and mournful message. He
therefore said, —

196 The tense here is not correctly given, the words are, “For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon; and so are all the
Versions. — Ed.